But, throughout, the evil, from a military standpoint, of the long peace was apparent. There was want of method in the attack and want of supreme direction. The artillery was badly handled, and was used without combined effort. It would have been wiser if the whole force had made a flank attack on the Russian right, and both threatened directly his line of retreat and penned him in against the coast.[54] And, finally, the cavalry were not used at all. “I will keep my cavalry in a bandbox,” said Raglan, which, however cautious, was not “_l’audace_”; and so, partly due to French advice no doubt, there was no pursuit and no rout. Once again, as often in the Peninsula, the battle was won by the fighting power of the men rather than the genius of the commander. Throughout, the cavalry, instead of spreading widely for information, were kept close to the columns they should have covered. Finally, while the Russians admit a loss of 6000 men, the British suffered one of 2000, and that of the French was estimated by Raglan at the most as three officers and 560 men. Two days were then wasted, and on the 23rd the army made the magnificent march of seven miles, and on the next day six more! With greater celerity Sebastopol might, in all human probability, have been carried by assault. So thought Todleben himself, the commanding engineer in the Russian fortress, and he was no mean judge. The defeated army had only garrisoned the fortress, and then proposed falling back into the interior. There was, too, a dread of the fortifications themselves on the part of the leaders of the British army, which is somewhat to be wondered at, with the traditions of Badajoz and Ciudad Rodrigo still not forgotten, by some at least. The works on the north side of the harbour were deemed too formidable to attack; it was decided, therefore, to make a flank march round the place and try the southern side. It must be remembered that the general line of march was north to south, that of the harbour east and west; and that beyond the upland which lay behind the town, and which was to be the site of the coming siege, were two harbours, Balaklava and Kamiesch, which might be used as new bases of operation against the great fortress of the Crimea. So the most remarkable flank march in military history was begun. Owing to the confusion that characterised much of the staff work of the campaign, the general-in-chief found himself leading the entire column, the advanced guard having lost its way (!), with behind him thirty guns; and this through a thick wood. The British general was in as complete ignorance that the Russian army was moving across his front five miles away, as was Mentschikoff in equally blissful ignorance that his enemy was crossing the rear of his column of march. Thus, not even the true advanced guard, but some of the main column, cut off some of the Russian baggage train.